Judge reserves ruling on acquittal in Bennett case

By Violet Gonda
10 March 2010

High Court Judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu reserved his decision to 31st March, on whether or not Roy Bennett should be acquitted.

This was after hearing submissions on Wednesday from the State, which opposed an application made by the defence to have their client acquitted.

On Monday the prosecution had closed its case, prompting the defence to apply for a dismissal saying the State had failed to show evidence linking their client to the alleged offense.

This was followed by a counter application by the State which said at the Wednesday hearing that there was no basis for an acquittal.

The MDC Treasurer General is accused of conspiring, with firearms dealer and key state witness Peter Hitschmann, to possess weapons of war to commit acts of sabotage, insurgency or terrorism.

But lead defence counsel Beatrice Mtetwa told the court that there has been nothing in the State’s submissions that linked her client to the possession of firearms and nothing that was produced before the court that implicates the MDC official.

The State also alleges that Bennett communicated via email with Hitschmann to blow up communication lines, but the defence argues there is no evidence before the courts which shows the emails were authentic.

“What we had in court were merely some papers which were purportedly to be copies of an email. But we argued that an email is an electronic mail – once it is a document it is a document and not an email anymore…And we were arguing that in order to authenticate an email you need to go to the evidence of an expert to show that the document that was before the court was indeed an email that was routed through the internet, but there was no such evidence,” said lawyer Trust Maanda.

Prosecutor Johannes Tomana also argued that the MDC official funded the acquisition of the alleged firearms. However, Bennett’s defence team told the court that the prosecution failed to prove this. Maanda said attempts were made by Tomana to show that Hitschmann had a personal bank account in Mozambique and that some deposits were made into the account, but he said there was no link between that account and Bennett.

He said: “In fact the submissions that were put before the court today were actually saying there were ‘unknown’ deposits by ‘unknown’ persons put into Hitschmann’s account.’ The lawyer said, again there was no evidence connecting the MDC Treasurer General.

Justice Bhunu said he will need two weeks to look at the submissions presented by both sides and come up with a ruling. Maanda said if the High Court judge rules in favour of the defence team it will mean the end of the terrorism case - unless the State appeals. On the other hand if the judge rules in favour of the State, the matter goes to the defence and the trial will proceed.

From the beginning the MDC-T has described this case as more political harassment of one of its officials. Over the years Bennett and his farm workers have been under extreme attack at the hands of the Mugabe regime.

He spent a year in prison for pushing a ZANU PF Minister in parliament after being insulted during an argument. Prior to this his commercial farm in the Chimanimani area was invaded by the then ZANU PF led government. His farm workers were killed, raped and beaten by so called war vets and soldiers. Bennett’s wife suffered a miscarriage during this violent period at the farm.

Currently, Robert Mugabe is refusing to swear Bennett in as the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, claiming he is facing serious charges – although there are other ministers in government facing cases before the courts.